Adherents.com: Religious Groups in Literature

34,420 citations from literature (mostly science fiction and fantasy) referring to real churches, religious groups, tribes, etc. [This database is for literary research only. It is not intended as a source of information about religion.]

"There was an unfamiliar Oriental calmness about Carvajal, too, an eerie Buddha-tranquility that seemed to say he had reached a place beyond all storms, a peace that was, happily, contagious: moments after I arrived, full of panic and bewilderment, I felt the charge of tension leaving me... "

"'Let's just say, karmically, he couldn't make a return trip . . . just yet.'

'Karma?' I looked Ariel up and down. 'So, what are you? Buddhist or something?'

The tips of her black bob swished, and her earrings shook to and fro. Her smile showed crooked, masculine teeth. 'Honey, do I look like a bodhisattva to you?'

I shrugged...

'Well, I am. In the flesh, as it were,' she said, with a broad wink. "

Buddhism

Newmanhome

2200

Pohl, Frederik. The World at the End of Time. New York: Ballantine (1990); pg. 283.

"Then there were the natural moons human being had colonized: Mary, Joseph, Mohammed, and Gautama were the important ones. (Sudden thrill almost of nostalgia: so some of the religious differences of frozen Newmanhome had persisted even here!) "

Buddhism

Nicoji

2200

Bell, M. Shayne. Nicoji. New York: Baen (1991); pg. 61.

"'What if we have to repair this raft--or build a new one...?' I said. 'How would we cut down the trees to get logs?'

'I wouldn't want you to cut down trees.'

'Dead trees, Sam. I'd only cut down dead trees for logs.'

He put the guns back in his lap and held onto them. 'Are you saying you won't kill living things anymore, Jake? If you are, it wouldn't be bad, I suppose to keep the guns to... build rafts out of dead trees.'

I ran to him and jerked the guns from his hands. 'You're out of your mind,' I said. He tried to grab the guns, but I... strapped both guns around my wrists. 'You're sick, Sam. What if you change your mind in two minutes and decide you've been spiritually commissioned to kill all lagarto in the pantano? Would you mistake me for a lagarto and burn off my head?'

'Don't be stupid.'

'You're sick.'

'We've killed too many animals, Jake. If we had the faith of Buddha, we'd throw ourselves to the lagarto so the lagarto might live.' "

Buddhism

Nicoji

2200

Bell, M. Shayne. Nicoji. New York: Baen (1991); pg. 61.

[Sam is in a hallucinatory state after being bitten by a poisonous animal. He tells Jake they should throw their guns in the water and not kill any more animals, or even trees.] "'We've killed too many animals, Jake. If we had the faith of Buddha, we'd throw ourselves to the lagarto so the lagarto might live.'

'Neither of us is a Buddha, Sam.' Sam used to claim he wished he'd been born Japanese or Mongolian so he coul understand the universe and not have a crippled Western mind. I'd gone with him once to a Zen temple in Idaho Falls... "

Buddhism

North America

2150

Anderson, Poul. Genesis. New York: Tor (2000); pg. 198.

"A procession went upon it. An elephant led, as richly caparisoned as the man under the silk awning of a howdah. Shaven-headed men in yellow robes walked after, flanked by horsemen who bore poles from which pennons streamed scarlet and gold. The sound of slowly beaten gongs and minor-key chanting came faint through the wind. " [More.]

Buddhism

North America

2150

Anderson, Poul. Genesis. New York: Tor (2000); pg. 198.

[No. American settled by Chinese.] "'Given the distance to sail and the dangers, the process was slow,' the voice went on. 'While the newcomers displaced or subjugated the natives wherever they settled, most remained free for a long time, acquired the technology, and also developed resistance to introduced diseases. Eventually, being on roughly equal terms, the races began to mingle, genetically and culturally. The settlers mitigated the savagery of the religions they had encountered, but learned from the societies as well as teaching. You behold the outcome.'

'The Way of the Buddha?' Laurinda asked very softly.

'As influenced by Taoism and local nature cults. It is a harmonious faith, without sects or heresies, pervading the civilization.'

'Everything can't be pure loving kindness,' Christian said.

'Certainly not. But the peace that the Emperor Wei Zhi-fu brought about has lasted for a century and will for another two..' "

"Dr. Wong spoke. She was like a nodding Buddha, her eyes pinched off to nothing, her face relaxed into an imperishable smile. " [Other refs., not in DB.]

Buddhism

Ontario: Toronto

1993

Huff, Tanya. Blood Lines. New York: DAW Books (1993); pg. 14.

"'...Not after accusing us of creating a nonexistent crack in that porcelain Buddha.'

...'We've just received a new Buddha,' the curator of the far East Department called after them. 'Second century BC. A beautiful little thing in alabaster and jade without a mark on it. You should come and see it soon.'

'Soon,' Dr. Shane agreed...

'A new Buddha,' he muttered... 'Of what historical significance is that? People are still worshiping Buddha...' "

Buddhism

Ontario: Toronto

2000

Sawyer, Robert J. Calculating God. New York: Tor (2000); pg. 190.

"Christine also had a stuffed passenger pigeon... a beautiful jade Buddha, about the size of a basketball; an Egyptian canopic jar... "

"It feeds a 9-cycle alpha rhythm through appropriately placed electrodes, and within seconds the brain can accept that rhythm and begin producing alpha waves as steadily as a Zen Buddhist in trance. "

Buddhism

Roman Empire

500 C.E.

Garfinkle, Richard. Celestial Matters. New York: Tor (1996); pg. 137.

"'I found the Diamond Sutra among your scrolls,' I said to Ramonojon. 'I can understand why you did not want to tell me you'd become a Buddhist.'

'The League does not like us,' he said with quiet understatement. 'You should turn me in. Otherwise they'll execute you, too, for harboring Buddhist sympathies.'

I felt a flush of pride that no part of me intended to turn my friend over to the Spartans for practicing the only religion proscribed in the League. One century ago Buddhism had grown so popular in India that it spread pacifism across the eastern edge of the League and the western edge of the Middle Kingdom. Both the League and the Kingdom had cracked down, executing thousands of Buddhist teachers and monks. Possession of the Diamond Sutra or any other Buddhist tract merited execution in the eyes of Sparta. "

Buddhism

Roman Empire

500 C.E.

Garfinkle, Richard. Celestial Matters. New York: Tor (1996); pg. 204.

"I had just begun to contemplate what that wisdom might be when Ramonojon's curiosity overwhelmed his new-learned Buddhist restraint and he broke the quiet with a question. "

"But despite their illegality, the fact is that the Buddhists opposed the war. None of them would spy for the Middlers, and none of them could be a party to assassination. That was how I knew Ramonojon to be innocent of the charges against him; but he could hardly use that as a defense. The only result would be in his execution for one crime instead of the other.

'Why did you convert?' I asked.

'That is hard to explain,' he said. 'I never told you how troubled I had become about my work over the last few years. All the ships I've carved, all the deaths they've caused. I told myself it was my dharma to do this work. But for the last three years, working on Sunthief, I've been haunted by the vision of 'AngXou burning, and then over this vacation...'

He paused, uncrossed his legs, and bowed his head between them.' Let me start again. Do you know about Xan Buddhism?' "

"'I willed you to emerge here exactly as you are in our universe,' Eldritch said. 'You see, that's the point that appealed to Hepburn-Gilbert, who of course is a Buddhist. You can reincarnate in any form you wish, or that's wished for you, as in this situation.' "

"The crown grew heavier with each passing years. When the Venerable Bodhidharma Mahanayake Thero had--so reluctantly--first placed it upon his head, Prince Kalidasa was surprised by its lightness. Now, twenty years later, King Kalidasa gladly relinquished the jewel-encrused band of gold whenever court etiquette allowed...

And yet Mahanayake Thero had no armies, no screaming war elephants tossing brazen tusks as they charged into battle. The High Priest was only an old man in an orange robe, whose sole material possessions were a begging bowl and a palm leaf to shield him from the sun. While the lesser monks and acolytes chanted the scriptures around him, he merely sat in cross-legged silence--and somehow tampered with the destinies of kings. It was very strange. . . . "; pg. 19: "'His name was Kalidasa, and he was born a hundred years after Christ, in Ranapura...' " [There are many refs. to Buddhism throughout novel, only a few are in DB.]

Buddhism

Sri Lanka

1890

Doyle, Arthur Conan. "The Sign of Four " in A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four. New York: Berkley/Penguin Putnam (1994; c. 1890); pg. 213.

I have never known him so brilliant. He spoke on a quick succession of subjects--on miracle plays, on mediaeval pottery, on Stradivarius violins, on the Buddhism of Ceylon, and on the warships of the future--handling each as though he had made a special study of it.

Pg. 223: "The monster was even taller than the forty-foot Aukana Buddha. "; Pg. 225: "'Sri Pada. Adam's Peak. There is a footprint at the top said to be made by the Buddha himself. It is a very holy place.' "; Pg. 229: "He walked back to his tent and spent the next few hours praying to the Buddha for a little less enlightenment. " [Other refs., not in DB.]

"'Jimmy, we did not come here to be aristocrats. That is not Right Action.'

Turner recognized the term. 'You're a Buddhist?'

'Yes. I was with Sarvodaya Shramadana, the Buddhist technological movement. Jimmy and I met in Sri Lanka, where the Sarvodaya was born.'

'Sri Lanka is a nice place to do videos,' Brooke said. 'I was still in the rock biz then, doing production work. Finance. But it was getting stale. Then I dropped in on a Sarvodaya rally, heard him speak. It was damned exciting!' Brook grinned at the memory. 'He was in trouble there, too. Even thirty years ago, his preaching was a little too pure for anyone's comfort.'

'We are not put on this earth to make things comfortable for ourselves,' Moratuwa chided. " [Some other refs., not in DB, but most significant refs. thought to be in DB.]

"'The footprint,' he said. 'The Muslims believed it was Adam's; he stood here after he was expelled from Paradise. The Hindus attributed it to Siva or Saman. But to the Buddhists, of course, it was the imprint of the Enlightened One.'

...'What is the belief now?'

The monk's face showed no emotion as he replied: 'The Buddha was a man, like you and me. The impression in the rock--and it is very hard rock--is two meters long.'

...The only unusual item in the room was the head of the Buddha, slightly larger than life, on a plinth in one corner. Morgan could not tell whether itwas real or merely a projection. "

"It was still, after twenty-seven centuries, the most revered day of the Taprobanean calendar. At the May full moon, according to legend, the Buddha had been born, had achieved enlightenment, and had died. Though to most people Vesak now meant no more than did that other great annual holiday, Christmas, it continued to be a time for meditation and tranquility.

... Twice, it was said, Kalidasa had stopped on this road when he had left Ranapura forever. The first halt was at the tomb of Hanuman, the loved companion of his boyhood; and the second was at the Shrine of the Dying Buddha... The very posture of the Enlightened One, resgint at last with closed eyes after a long and noble life, radiated serenity. The sweeping lines of the robe were extraordinarily soothing and restful to contemplate... In timeless moments such as this, alone with the Buddha... " [Much more material here.]

"'Salutations to the Buddha!In the language of gods and in that of the demigods.In the language of the demons and in that of men,In all the languages which exist,I proclaim the Doctrine!'

The words of the ancient Buddhist invocation resonated across the courtyard of the monastery like a flourish of temple bells. As the echoes died away, there arose a sonorous, long-drawn exchange of horn-calls signaling the commencement of evening devotions. In the window's belonging to the apartments of the monastery's abbot, a string of moving lights appeared as the abbot himself, together with his attendants, processed toward the tsokhang, the community's vaulted meditation hall. Elsewhere throughout the monastery, a subdued patter of sandalled feet likewise converged on the hall, arrested outside the door as the ordinary monks paused to shed their footwear before padding inside to take their places for prayers and meditation. "

"Nowhere was the illusion more complete than in the meditation hall of the temple. Lofty as a cathedral vault, the interior was illuminated mostly by an array of elaborately jeweled and enameled butter lamps. On every side, the walls and pillars were decorated with frescoes and scrolls of painting, some of them showing the manifold images of various Buddhas, others devoted to the depiction of a wide range of saints, demigods, and demons. At one end of the hall, enshrined behind another row of butter lamps, glittered the gilded images of lamas and former abbots. Beneath these statues reposed a collection of gold and silver stupas, reliquaries containing their mummified remains. " [Many other refs., not in DB.]

"'...It is possible that at least a few of these refugees found their way to Switzerland, black ngagspas among them. A number of Buddhist communities flourish there today--though he cannot imagine any of them having Nazi connections. Certainly, no Buddhist known to us would be involved in something like this,' "

"The traditions governing these observances dated back to ancient Tibet. This monastic community, however, was located not amid the towering crags of the Himalayas, but deep in the heart of the Swiss Alps. Most inhabitants of the neighboring villages assumed that this settlement was merely an extension of the respected and much better-known Buddhist colony located at Rikon, near Zurich.

In fact, nothing could have been further from the truth. Though many honest seekers from both East and West daily found their way here, none of these ever suspected that this innocent-seeming retreat from the world was home to a secret group of individuals who, for nearly half a century, had concealed the shadowy nature of their true powers and ambitions behind carefully maintained masks of sanctity. " [This fictional group is known as the Phurba--the Dagger Cult. This is one of very few science fiction/fantasy novels in which Buddhists are actually the antagonists (bad guys).]

"The slightest miscalculation in gauging the winds, the updrafts, the downdrafts, the jet stream . . . any mistake means death for a flyer. That is why they live alone... and charge a fortune to do the Dalai Lama's bidding by delivering messages from the capital at Potala, or to fly prayer streamers during a Buddhist celebration, or to carry urgent notes from a trader... " [Many other refs., not in DB. Others in DB listed under 'Tibetan Buddhism.']

"Beyond our Sacred Mountain of the North, I know, rise the Four Mountains of Pilgrimage for the Buddhist faithful--O-meri Shan to the west; Chiu-hua Shan, 'Nine Flower Mountain,' the south; Wu-t'ai Shan, the 'Five Terrace Mountain' with its welcoming Purple Palace to the north; and lowly but subtly beautiful P'u-t'o Shan to the far east. " [Many other refs., not in DB.]

"I pass through the pavilions for Right Speech and Right Action, pausing to catch my breath in the circular pagoda for Right Livelihood. There is a bamboo barrel of drinking water just outside the pagoda for Right Effort, and I drink deeply there. Prayer flags flutter and snap along the terraces and eaves as I move softly across the long connecting platform to the highest structures. The meditation pavilion for Right Mindfulness is part of Aenea's recent work and still smells of fresh bonsai cedar. Ten meters higher along the steep ladder, the Right Meditation pavilion perches out over the bulk of the Temple... I recognize as the Chinese character for Buddha. "

"'The Bible lies. The Koran lies. The Talmud and Torah lie. The New Testament lies. The Sutta-pitaka, the nikayas, the Itivuttaka, and the Dhammapada lies. The Tiptaka lies. All Scripture lies . . . just as I lie as I speak to you now.

'All these books lie not from intention or failure of expression but by their very nature of being reduced to words; all the images, precepts, laws, canons, quotations, parables, commandments, koans, zazen, and sermons in these beautiful books ultimately fail by adding only more words between the human being who is seeking and the perception of the Void Which Binds.' "

"A. Bettik had traveled to Mt. Kalais during his first full year on the planet... The android also said that on the summit of Mt. Kalais, high on the icefields where the wind is too thin to blow or breathe, sits a carboned-alloy temple to the Buddhist deity of the mountain, Demchog, the 'One of Supreme Bliss,' a giant at least ten meters tall, as blue as the sky, draped with garlands of skulls and happily embracing his female consort as he dances. A Bettik said that the blue-skinned deity looks a bit like him. The palace itself is in the precise center of the rounded summit, which lies in the center of a mandala made up of lesser snow peaks, all of it embracing the sacred circle--the physical mandala--of the divine space of Demchog, where those who mediate will discover the wisdom to set them free from the cycle of suffering. "

"'...I must acquaint you in more detail with our religious situation here... We are a colony of schisms, of splinter sects. Many of us were aware of the special effects of Planet Tarot before we emigrated from Earth, and each of us saw in these effects the potential realization of God--our particular specialized concepts of God, if you will. This appeal seems to have been strongest to the weakest sects, or in any rate, the smallest numerically. Thus we have few Roman Catholics, Mohammedans, Buddhists, or Confucians, but many Rosicrucians, Spiritualists, Moonies, Gnostics, Flaming Sworders--' "

"As the taxi door shut Joan shouted, 'Percy X and I went to college together. Comparative Religion One and Two at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. We intended to be preachers, Mister Swenesgard. Isn't that crazy?'...

Strange, she thought, that Percy and I are going to meet again under such unchanged conditions. I've been studying Buddhism and he the religion of Mohammed, but somehow, during all the excitement, we have both gotten a long way from where we had intended to go. "

'A thousand reasons and none,' Percy said gruffly. 'You and I studied Buddhism together; Buddha taught us not to harm any living being. Christ said the same thing. All those pacifist bastards agreed on it, so who am I to argue with them?'

The bitter irony of his voice--she did not remember it from the days when they had both been studying to be ministers, each in his own faith. He had changed. "

"Paul said thoughtfully, 'You've made it about halfway.' He chose his words with care. 'Buddha and Christ began by going off into the wilderness, into the kind of aloneness you seem to be in now, but they didn't stay there. They came back--to try to do something for the rest of us. Maybe they failed. But at least they tried.' "

Buddhism

Texas

1996

Leon, Mark. The Unified Field. New York: Avon Books (1996); pg. 236.

"'But think about the differences between our worlds, and you might understand. On your poor planet you have spent the last several thousand years lurching form one paradigm to another--polytheism, empire, monarchy, Christianity, Buddhism, communism, capitalism--with no end in sight. "

"Eleanor had spent enough time traveling the Pacific Rim to identify these as kneeling 'Buddhist Disciples,' their palms set together in prayer, their bodies thin under the gilded bronze-and-mirrored glass robes. She thought that they were probably from Thailand or Cambodia.

"Steam rose from the street, blurring the green neon Buddha just across from their third-floor balcony, and the letters that Lynn imagined said Emeral Buddha Noodle Shop in Thai. "

Buddhism

Thailand

2040

Jones, Gwyneth. White Queen. New York: Tor (1991); pg. 267.

Pg. 267: "It was black night in Krung Thep, one of the Buddhist Days of Atonement when everything closed down, services were cut to minimum and people stayed at home to pray for the planet. "; Pg. 285: "But it was an article of faith with Poonsuk that she had been no more present, in the Multiphon, than any one of the billions who joined her through the lightlines. The lightlines, the networks, were the means to the Buddhahood of all mankind, female and male. What if the aliens, who did not believe in telecommunication, were to do away with that? "

[Year estimated] "Granddad and I used to take some sarnies and our sleeping bags and kip with them. The Travelers go everywhere, so they sit around the fire and tell about all sorts going on, not just in England but France and Italia. One girl, her Mum let her go with them for a whole summer. She went to Prague and saw all these Buddhist monks from Thailand. They were Travelers and all. "

Tres sighed. 'Mara is phanyaa mahn, Johnny. The prince of demons. He is the one who sent his three daughters--Aradi, discontent . . . Tanha, desire . . . and Raka, love . . . to tempt the Buddha. But the Buddha won.'

...'So Mara's a man?' I didn't know if I could take any more of this queer stuff.

'Tres shook he head. 'Not when the spirit of the phanyaa mahn combines with the naga in a demon-human incarnation.' " [More about Mara and naga, pg. 52.]

Buddhism

Tibet

500 C.E.

Garfinkle, Richard. Celestial Matters. New York: Tor (1996); pg. 138.

"Xan was not a sect I had ever heard of.

'It was founded about five hundred years ago by Buddhists and Taoists I the border states between India and the Middle Kingdom.'

'Taoists? What does Buddhism have to do with Middler science?'

'Mountain Taoists,' he said. 'They're philosophers, not scientists. The Middle Kingdom has as much use for them as the League does of Platonists. When I was home on vacation, I met a childhood friend whom I had not seen for years; I didn't know at the time that he had been in Tibet learning the eightfold path. I told him about my work and my worries, and he introduced me to a Xan teacher. Instead of beginning with Buddhism, he began with the Tao. He made me see the folly of Sunthief by showing me that we were breaking the balance of yin and yang.'

'I've seen those words in captures Taoist science texts. What do they mean?' "

"With each seed or fingernail, knot or button, a priest recited the ancient mantra, Om mani padme hum. Hail to the Jewel in the Lotus, the invocation to the Buddha of Compassion. No priest would recline on his bunk until his daily regime of at least one hundred cycles was completed. " [There are refs. to Buddhism throughout novel. The novel is in large part about Tibetans and Tibetan Buddhism, struggling against Chinese oppression. Other refs. not in DB.]

"As in the western province of Xinjiang, the home of millions of Moslems belonging to central Asian cultures, Beijing was turning the native populations of Tibet into a minority in their own lands. Half of Tibet had been annexed to neighboring Chinese provinces. Population centers in the rest of Tibet had been flooded with immigrants. Endless truck convoys over thirty years had turned Lhasa into a Han Chinese city. The roads built for such convoys were called avichi trails at the 404th, for the eight level of hell, the hell reserved for those who would destroy Buddhism. "

"Behind Sattva was a huge sitting Buddha, smooth and gold, so tall--fifty feet?--that his massive head was lost in the shadows. Evey surface of the room was covered with intricate design--carvings, inlaid mother-of-pearl, golden visios of demons and various grades of paradixe. How many centuries had this place been here? "

"For thousands of years, life in Shambala was relatively untouched and unobstructed by events in the outside world. Occasionally, straying travelers would find their way here by accident, but usually newcomers who would become a part of Shambala were guided here by the Terton, a saintly being or bodhisattva, as such people are called in the Buddhist faith... " [Many refs. to Buddhism throughout novel. Tibetan Buddhism is the religion most prominently featured in the novel.]

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